


The Adventure of the Cursed Box

by ThatMasterOnline



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 16:40:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19479886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatMasterOnline/pseuds/ThatMasterOnline
Summary: A young woman brings Holmes a box with sickening contents. But who brought the box? Who could do such a thing? Holmes must solve the case quickly, as each day brings a new body, and it seems the killer's final victim will be the young woman herself.More adventure focused than shippy.





	The Adventure of the Cursed Box

In my long time spent assisting Mr. Sherlock Holmes in his cases, I have seen a great many things. None, however, were more shocking and gruesome than the case of the cursed box, which I put to paper only for the sake of a complete record of his cases, and not for any joy that it brings to my heart to recall the sickening affair.

It was a Friday in late April, when the weather had taken a miserable turn, and all of London was locked inside by a torrential downpour. Holmes was watching out the window, as was his habit, when he hummed and moved to his chair, lighting a pipe for himself.

"We shall have a client in the next minute, Watson, or I shall be prepared to forever retire from the world of crime the minute after." I moved to the window to look for myself, but the client in question had disappeared from view. Mere moments later, however, the sound of pitiful sobbing could be heard at the entrance and quickly ascending towards our flat. I opened the door for the poor woman, and she immediately sank into the nearest chair, clutching what appeared a yellow gift box. She was in her mid twenties, and her face was one that would be exquisitely beautiful under normal circumstances.She was sopping wet and white as a sheet, having nothing to protect herself from the rain and bitter cold outside, a fact accentuated by the almost seizure-like shivers that wracked her body. She had a look of the utmost torment on her face, and my heart went out to her in an instant. 

"Help me, Mr. Holmes, you must help me," she sobbed, as Mrs. Hudson came in with tea and a blanket for the poor woman.

"I assure you, I will exert the full force of my powers to assist you," he said soothingly, and the ghost of a smile threatened my lips. Despite his cold demeanour, Holmes could never turn away a sight so pitiful as this.

"Please, have some tea. Why don't you tell me your name?"

"That's not important!" She protested in a choked voice, not so much as acknowledging the tea in front of her. The matter at hand seemed too pressing for her to even take care of herself.

"Quite right. What  _ is  _ important is that box," Holmes said, "You cannot bear to hold it, and yet you cannot bear to let it go. I doubt I am mistaken in saying that it is this box which has led you to our doorstep on miserable day such as this." I was shocked by Holmes' assessment of the woman's curious love and hate of the box, but the woman merely nodded, either unnoticing or uncaring of the deduction Holmes had just made.

"They thought it was fake!" she burst out suddenly, "Those bumbling idiots thought it was some kind of joke, but they're wrong! I know they are!"

"Please, madam, calm yourself. It would be much more beneficial for us both if you started at the beggining." She nodded again, placing the box on the table. I thought she would wrap her arms around herself at once, but she seemed not to want to touch anything. She reached for the tea, but her hand stopped short of the cup, and she placed it back in her lap, palm up. Holmes' eyes flickered to mine, checking to see that I too had caught this strange behaviour, and I gave an imperceptible nod.

"It came in the post this morning," she said. I went to the police at once, but those bumbling idiots-!" 

"...Thought it was fake," Holmes finished for her, and she nodded.

"I myself have never placed much faith jn the local police, and so you were right to come to me for a second opinion. I doubt very much, however, that your visit to the police took all day, as it is now late in the evening and you just testified that you received this box in the morning." The woman tensed, looking away, and Holmes sat back in his chair.

"...Madam, I cannot assist you if you are not entirely truthful with me."

"I didn't...I just...I don't know how I could have been so utterly pathetic...When I received the box, I was… … ...overcome," she finally finished, and I understood that she had collapsed. "I didn't wake up until the afternoon."

"You live alone, then," Holmes deduced, and again the woman nodded, unnoticing and uncaring of the deduction. I turned to Holmes, however, utterly shocked, and he smiled.

"Come, Watson, the deduction was not a ddificult one. If you saw a woman insensible in the streets, would you not tend to her? It is either the worst villain of a husband or a nonexistent one that would ignore a woman collapsed in her home. The same can be said of servants or landladies. In all the time she was indisposed, not one person noticed her plight and came to her aid." The woman nodded her assent of Holmes' assessment.

"...So, when you awoke, you went to the police," Holmes continued, "But they were ineffective, so you took the box to me for a second opinion." The woman nodded again, and Sherlock nodded to himself.

"That seems an account recount of the day's events. And now, let us see what has driven a young woman such as yourself out into this miserable storm without so much as a coat." 

"W-wait!" Holmes looked up at the woman as she dug in her pocket and retreived a card.

"This...this came with it." She nodded, then lapsed into fresh tears and silence. Holmes took the card, reading the simple but unsettling message on the card. 

"May the blood of the sacrificial lamb grant you eternal youth and beauty," he read, "What a frightening message. Very well, let us open the box now."

At once the woman closed her eyes, placing her fingers in her ears in the most unusual way. Holmes and I shared a glance.

"...If you would prefer to be out of the room…" I began, and she shook her head.

"Just get it over with!" She insisted, fresh tears falling down her cheeks. Holmes put his long, thin fingers on either side of the box lid, and lifted. Inside was a mass of flesh and blood, filled with rose petals to mask the scent. Holmes and I both gasped at the horror of the thing.

"...Most unusual," Holmes said, his eyes now keen and scanning the box eagerly. A moment later he paled considerably, his eyes widened, and his jaw clenched tight. I was wondering what could have prompted such a reaction when I looked again at the box and understood the true nature of the box's contents. 

...I will admit that at the moment of discovery I was not in control of my movements.

"MY GOD!!!" I cried, throwing myself away from the wretched thing, upturning and falling over my chair in the process.

"Holmes, it...it's a child!"  
  



End file.
